Pregnant Pictures

Funny story behind these pictures and no my water did not break. We were all sitting around the table for dinner and I went to pour myself a glass of water forgetting that I had just filled our filter pitcher with water. The water dumped all over my food and lap. Anna exclaims, "Oh honey get a rag quick!" Jared's eyes are popping out of his head and Kevin is almost rolling on the ground with laughter. Kevin jumps up and grabs the camera and takes a picture. At the moment these are the only pregnant pictures I have so here you go.

Funny side note the next night Anna did the exact same thing.

Pregnancy Update

I had an appointment this morning. I was late due to a dome light in the van being left on. I had to flag down a random neighbor to give our van a jump so I could get to the appointment. The man I found ended up not speaking English, but after some charades he figured out my problem and agreed to come over and help. I've got some pumpkin bread in the oven for him as a thank you.
Anyway I finally got to the doctors and here is the scoop. I am currently (for the third week now) dilated at a 1. Because this is a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) I need to be dilated to at least a 3 in order for him to induce me. All his inducements and surgeries are scheduled on Fridays. So if I'm favorable at my next appointment then I could have this baby on the 3rd! If not I have till the 10th to get favorable or go into labor myself otherwise I'm going under the knife. Cesarean is not our first choice, but we are thankful for anyway way a child and mother can safely get through the birthing process.
My mom comes out this Wednesday and will be here till the 20 something of the month. So we will have lots of help. Poor Kevin has a ton of tests around the week that we are due and I'm not sure how he is going to do it yet. Jared has Spring Break the week of the 6th so that will be nice to have him home and not have to worry about getting him back and forth to school and home. Anna is super excited to be a big sister and continues to give us baby name advice. She has moved away from Isabella and turned to more sophisticated names like "Table", "Chair", "Spoon", or whatever else she has in her line of sight. I'm pretty sore in my back and joints due to all the extra weight I'm carrying and my ribs are getting quit the beating, but I'm not complaining. At least not yet. Ask me how I'm doing in about 10 days.

Washington D.C.

We have lived on the East coast off an on for over 10 years and have never done the tourist D.C. thing. Jared has been asking to go see some museums so we thought it was about time we went. Kevin has had Spring Break this last week so we took Jared out of school on Friday and drove down for the day. The kids were really excited and wouldn't stop laughing, cracking jokes, and singing silly songs the whole way to D.C. It was cute. After about 30-45 minutes of searching for a parking spot (I don't know how people live in D.C.) we were off to the Museum of Art. This is the one Jared really wanted to see because he wants to be the director of an art museum when he grows up.
There were pretty flowers and fountains in the museum and I couldn't help, but capture a piece of spring with the kids.
Next we went to the Air and Space Museum. Kevin and I thought it was interesting, but the kids weren't that impressed. We didn't stay long before we walked over the the Museum of Natural History. This is the coolest Smithsonian out of them all and we should have just spent the whole day there. Anna loved this place and wanted to see every exhibit and display.


It was a fun day with the exception of the traffic. The Cherry trees were just starting to blossom and it wasn't too cold. We will have to go back another time and check out the monuments, maybe with family. (hint come and visit hint)

The Ultimate Dad Sport

PINEWOOD DERBY!!!

A little over a week ago the men at our church had an activity where they all made and raced pinewood derby cars. It was a family event and a lot of fun. The week following this activity was the cub scout pinewood derby race. Jared isn't a cub scout yet, but since our scout troop is so small they invited Jared to participate. For the past month Kevin, Jared, and Anna have been working on their cars. (Anna used the left over parts from Kevin's car)

They looked up designs on the Internet, picked out their weights, and chose their paint. Kevin took the cars to school with him to buff the axles and weigh the cars. Everyday during the week of the cub scout pinewood derby Kevin would walk in the door from school and fidget with the kids cars. I think he was more into the activity than Jared. One evening while examining Jared's car he asks, "Jared are you happy with your car?" Silent pause while Jared ponders the question. Before Jared answers Kevin continues, "Because I was thinking that maybe we could..." Interrupted by my laughing and Kevin's moment of embarrassment over his obsession of Jared's car. Kevin looks at me, red faced, and exclaims, "Well...humph!" I'm still laughing.

They all had a fun time making their cars and couldn't wait for the race. Jared's car did well taking 2nd place behind an 11 year old scout. He had great sportsmanship and a huge smile after every race down the track. It was fun to watch.

After the event was over Anna got to race her car against whoever wanted to. She ended up beating the overall winner and the guy who won 2nd place at the grownup pinewood derby. This was the car that the least amount was spent on polishing and perfecting. Anna, Jared, and Kevin all race against each other with their cars, the results are as follows: Anna's car beat Jared's by half a length, Jared's car beat Kevin's by a full car length, and Kevin's car that took fourth in the adult competition looked like it wasn't even moving compared to the kids.

Needless to say she was really excited especially when the scout leader gave her a trophy too! She didn't put it down all night and it is currently sitting on the windowsill by her bed. Over all a really fun experience.

Ode to Children

Just kidding I don't know how to write and Ode, but I thought I'd take a moment to let you know (especially family) how sweet they are and what they have been up to.

Jared is doing well in school. He is a tender hearted little (should say big) guy. It has taken him a while to make friends at our new place because he can be shy, but he comes home talking about so and so and what they did in art or recess that day. It has taken a while, but he seems to have finally adjusted. He has recently taken off on reading. I'm amazed at how much he can read now. Every morning he and Anna spend time reading and he will read to her. It is so sweet. Most of the time he is a deep thinking serious kid, but he has been coming out of his shell lately (mostly with Kevin and Anna) and he is turning out to be a real tease. Anna is finally getting a taste of her own medicine! He can't wait to have another little sister. Every night and right before he leaves for school he hugs and kisses my tummy and says, "Goodnight baby." or "Goodbye baby. I love you." (We still don't have a name picked out.) Kevin and I are constantly caught off guard by something he will say or do and comment to each other that, "man he is such a good kid." What can we say we lucked out in so many ways when he came to our family and we love him so much.

Anna might look more like me, but she is a mini Kevin in spirit. She loves to tease and laugh and enjoy every minute (if it suits her at the time) Her favorite thing to do lately is to hide from Kevin or Jared when they come home and then jump out at them and shout, "BOO!" Then she runs away laughing only to dart back at them and try to tickle or attack them. She still loves to dress up and has taken to dressing up her stuffed animals too. She wants to be like Jared in so many ways. She will "read" with him, pretends to go to school, and will draw next to Jared (Jared loves to draw). She is incredibly head strong and opinionated, which I'm sure will come in handy when she is older and faced with so many difficult choices, just so long as we can steer her in the right direction now. She also can't wait to be a big sister. It has been fun to watch her interact with younger kids and baby's the last few months. She has been a real help around the house lately, cleaning up without being asked, helping with dinner, and folding the clothes. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.
There is my Ode. We love Jared and Anna so much and can't wait to meet our new daughter in about a month.

Weekend

This weekend started on Friday morning when Jared missed the bus. As Jared was putting on his coat he looked out the window and saw his bus leaving and broke down almost to tears. Jared is a stickler for following the rules and doing things way they are suppose to be done so missing the bus was stressful for him. Luckily for him we have a second vehicle now (hallelujah!) so we all loaded up and dropped him off at school. -Let me just say real fast that school carpool lanes are a pain and I'm sure there has to be a better system out there for getting your kids to school-
After we dropped off Jared Anna and I got ready to go to the Baltimore Children's Science Museum. Anna was invited to go with a friend from church and she had a lot of fun. There was a really neat dinosaur exhibit that allowed the kids to excavate bones and learn all about dinosaurs.

Friday night, after playing at some friends house, Kevin went off to a boyscout camping trip. In the morning after fixing the boys breakfast he came home and we pretty much hung out all day at the house.
Anna woke up Sunday morning with a cough and a fever and I wasn't feeling well either. An hour or two later it was apparent , as I was hovering over the toilet, that we weren't going to make it to church. Kevin let me sleep most of the day and took care of the kids. Not sure if it was a 24 hour stomach flu or fun pregnant moments, but I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better.
We woke up this morning to this: Three to four inches of snow! It is March for crying out loud! I thought Spring was on its way, but I guess I was wrong. It was actually pretty to wake up to and it is suppose to warm up to the 60's by this upcoming weekend so I shouldn't complain too much. Jared's school was canceled and so was Kevin's. So here we are on Monday continuing our weekend enjoying each others company, but hoping for warmer weather and better health.